Where then is the boasting? (that of the Jew, referred to in Romans 2:1-29., of his superiority to the Gentile with regard to justification). It is excluded. By what manner of ( ποίου) law? Of works?
Nay, but by the law of faith. Is it, then, here implied that the law of works would allow of boasting? Not so practically. But its theory would leave room for it, on the supposition of its conditions being fulfilled; it is a kind of law (observe ποίου νόμου;) which does not exclude it; for if a man could say, "I have fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law," he would have something wherein to glory.
But the principle of the law of faith, which has been shown to be the only one available for the justification of either Jew or Gentile, in itself excludes it. It will be observed that the strict sense of the word νόμος, hitherto preserved, is extended in νόμος πίστεως.
(For the various applications of which the word is capable, see especially Romans 7:1-25.